Judgment Month is Upon Us—Again
In an article dated May 31, published by Realclearreligion.com, Robb Brunansky said this about Christians and the dreaded month of June that comes every year.
As Christians, we might easily look at June as a month where the darkness has overtaken the light, where godless people brazenly mock God by taking His rainbow and using it to celebrate what He describes as an abomination. But we do well to remember that God in His sovereignty rules over the darkness and that God is not mocked, no matter how vigorously men may try.
He is exactly right, and I would like to double down on that opinion. The problem with Pride Month is not the fact that it is about celebrating a lifestyle and behavior that the Bible condemns. It is the word pride that is the greater problem.
According to Romans 1, the reason that Western culture—not just the United States—is in its present depraved state is pride and not lust.
According to Romans 1:18, our present moral state is a manifestation of the wrath of God on humanity. It is God’s response to humanity’s rejection of the truth that God has so graciously communicated universally to all who will look.
Truth revealed.
God has manifested Himself in creation (Romans 1:19-20). It is not hard to see—it is evident. The closer we look, the clearer it is. This article is not intended to be a defense of the biblical account of creation—but everything from our DNA to the laws of nature itself points to an intelligent Designer–intelligent beyond our wildest imagination. We not only see the evidence of a creator, we see evidence of His eternal power and authority.
An arrogant response to general revelation.
The proper response to this knowledge is to humble ourselves before our Creator—and to glorify Him. But instead, even though we are the recipients of multitudes of blessings from God, we have chosen to deny Him and glorify ourselves (Romans 1:20-21). This was the great sin of modernism. Modernism denied the reality of God and instead made mankind its deity. We celebrated technology and education and proclaimed ourselves experts in things of which we were completely ignorant. Our imaginations became foolish and empty, filled with self-aggrandizing fluff.
The result.
Our hearts were darkened (Romans 1:21). What does darkened mean? There are two ways in which our hearts have been darkened. We have darkened our hearts intellectually. The more arrogant you are the more ignorant you become. When you are so arrogant that you can—out of hand—deny the existence of God and the integrity of the Bible without even considering it, you have plunged yourself into ignorance.
Spiritual ignorance begets moral darkness. A godless worldview struggles to find any workable moral compass. There is no sense of “the good” or “the right” upon which to see the world or frame societal norms. All actions become an expression of self-gratification or power plays of one group over another.
The more we claim to be enlightened and intellectual, the more foolish we have become (Romans 1:22). As we purposefully chose to abandon God from our thinking we chose to glorify humanity itself, or elements of the natural world. As a biblical worldview surrendered to Romanticism in the last part of the 19th century we glorified the primitive, children and childishness, animals, and nature (are you thinking Disney?).
A further step on God’s part.
As we continue down the path of rejecting the divine, God also responds. He gives humanity over to corrupted thinking. This is what frustrates Christians so much today. They cannot understand how the thinking of people around them can be so senseless. The most recent examples of this have been the “gays for Palestine” banners rising over the last few months. The position is senseless and self-defeating even if you do not believe homosexuality is a sin. God has given people over to irrational thinking.
God gives people over to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts (Romans 1:24). The idea is that there is an absolute loss of moral self-restraint because there is no longer any divine restraint. While salvation itself is a personal relationship with God, Romans 1 indicates that God is also actively restraining civilizations from complete moral destruction. Perhaps He does this so that He might save some. When He withdraws His restraining Hand, everything falls apart. Sexuality deviates from its created purpose. Without the restraining Hand of God, we lose our sense of how to procreate, and how to build families, we kill our babies, and trade our future for the gratification of a moment. We become a culture defined by sin more than anything else (Romans 1:29-31). This is how a culture commits suicide.
Finally, we celebrate our wickedness and the wickedness around us.
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)
This is the final step. We celebrate (approve, affirm) what we and others have become.
Pride Month is the last step in the process. Pride Month is Judgment Month. It is the undeniable evidence of God’s judgment upon our culture.
So, what should believers do? While others celebrate Pride Month we should observe Humble Ourselves Before God Month. We must be careful not to become arrogant in our imaginations. We must remember that we are sinners saved undeservingly by His grace. We must beg God’s mercy on us and those around us. We must ask God to open the eyes of the blind and the hearts of those who have rejected Him. Perhaps He will show us mercy by drawing sinners to Himself.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
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